Okay, so I'm not sure what happened here. I haven't seen the gym or lifted weights since Sunday! I was doing so well but..alas, this was an entire week of cheating! I'm terrified to even step on the scale because I don't want to get discouraged.

I went out Monday night so my sleep schedule was thrown off quite a bit. I've been EXHAUSTED and eating unnecessarily large dinners.

Has anyone gone through something similar? I was doing really well for 3 weeks and was down 14 pounds. I don't even want to think about what the scale would say today but worse is the fact that I'm not motivated to make my way to the gym this weekend.

Sorry you had a bad week - I know how you feel. I lost 2.5 lbs last week and I'm finally through all my vacation eating (3 weeks of vacation - yay! but lots of weight gains & losses) and 3 business trips (more gaining, and subsequent losing) - so I was feeling a lot less stress, just getting back into the groove; but I've binged all week - I have no idea why!

I have learned that I cannot avoid the scale, or tracking my foods (I am doing WW online) just because of my binges. In the past, I would just trying and "forget about it" and move on - the problem was, for me, that I was avoiding it, not really "forgive & forget." There is a difference.

So I've forced myself to track all the details of my binges, it's not pretty. And yeah, I'm not looking forward to my weigh-in tomorrow morning, but I'm going to do it. It's good for me to see the consequences of my actions rather than just avoiding. Yeah, it's tough to see the scale go up - but it's all about accountability, in my case. I've gone to the gym and done my normal work-outs (though they haven't been great work-outs, at all....) all week, and I'm glad for that. I figure if I'm going to eat my face off, I need to at least do one good thing for myself...even when my body feels cruddy b/c of all the junk I'm eating.

Go to the gym! Even if you have a bad work-out, you're keeping the habit. Fight through the bad weeks, cause it'll get better - you just have to work at it and you CAN do it!

__________________ The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.~ Vincent T. Lombardi ~

If you intend to keep this weight off once you lose it, you're going to have to learn how to eat correctly long-term. There will be highs and lows in the future, and that's normal. Don't look at it like a big defeat and as an excuse to not go to the gym or continue dieting.

You can only begin from where you currently are - never anywhere else. Forget what's behind you and focus on right now and moving ahead. Remember the old saying - "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Move forward and keep your eyes on the prize.

Don't weigh for a few weeks if you have to. But you HAVE to find that motivation in you again. Don't let one bad week keep you from the gym, or whatever weight you have gained will STAY on, thereby negating three weeks of hard work. Get to the gym!

dont' let a mistake keep you from progressing... if you're tracking your weight and nutrition, start it back up! I just went through the same thing - went on a hiatus for the last month and a half due to my twin sister's wedding, MY wedding/vacation, and writing a thesis proposal. I finally got back on the scale today, and yep - I'm still 6 pounds up from what I was before the hiatus - BUT, now I know where I stand. I've been back on track for several days now, and who knows - I could have lost 2 pounds already, and don't know it because I was afraid of that darn scale! See what I mean? You won't see yourself progressing [again] unless get back on, either way. Good luck!

My advice is to step on the scale NOW! It'll be the kick in the behind you need to restart your good habits. I messed up during a long weekend vacation with my husband in May. I came home and kept messing up. Instead of ignoring my actions, I finally stepped on the scale, recorded my weight, and started making good decisions again. If I had just ignored the scale until some of the weight came off, I wouldn't have learned how bad my decisions were for my health and weight loss goals. Shake it off and start again!